Scenes from Die Zauberflöte
by ZdenkaWaldner
Summary: I. Sarastro steals Pamina from her mother, but the Queen of the Night does not let her go without a struggle. / II. The Queen of the Night begins her preparations to take back her daughter from Sarastro, but she is interrupted by memories. (Queen of the Night, Sarastro, Pamina, Pamina's father)
1. Denn meine Tochter fehlet mir

Written for Purimgifts 2015. I've always thought it was a pity that the Queen of the Night and Sarastro don't have a duet. This is my attempt at giving them a scene together.

* * *

I. Denn meine Tochter fehlet mir

When the Queen told the story to Tamino later, she let him see her as a grieving mother, showing her own helplessness and Sarastro's treachery. But there was more to it that she did not tell him. For one thing, she would never have let her daughter go without a struggle.

While the Diadem of the Stars rested upon her brow, nothing happened within her own domains that she did not know of if she wished it. The wind carried messages to her, and she took care to know if anything approached her daughter. Standing within her palace, she was aware of the intruder almost as soon as Pamina, and she heard what they said to each other.

"Who are you?" her daughter's voice said, high with alarm.

"Do not be afraid." A deeper voice, low and reassuring. "I was a friend of your father – and I would like to be yours as well. I only wish to speak with you for a few moments."

The Queen clenched her fists. Yes, she knew that voice well – and bitterly she blamed him for the loss of what should have been hers.

"You knew my father?"

"Yes, Pamina. I knew him well, and I spoke with him often in his last illness of his hopes and fears for you."

This had gone on quite long enough. The Queen gathered her power and was instantly beside them in the garden. Sarastro raised his head to look at her. He did not seem surprised by her sudden appearance. He was much as she remembered him, though older; he wore the robes of his priesthood, with the gleaming Circle of the Sun on its golden chain about his neck. She narrowed her eyes at the sight of it. "Say rather," she said coldly, "that you and your priests hovered about him like vultures. You beguiled him with your smooth words until you could steal away his greatest power."

Pamina turned to her with relief. "Mother!"

She raised her hand with an authoritative gesture. "Do not listen to him, Pamina. His words are lies. He was no friend of your father's – or you."

"It was you and not I who was eager for his power." Sarastro's voice rose, though he regained his composure after a brief moment.

The Queen smiled scornfully. "Is that so – when you wear the Circle of the Sun upon your breast even now? Leave this place. You have nothing to say that I or my daughter need to hear."

Sarastro stepped forward. "Listen to me. I can see your anger, but hear me out for your daughter's sake, at least. She has inherited not only your powers, but her father's as well. She must be trained in their use, and the best place to do that is in the Temple of Wisdom."

"I will never let her go to you."

Sarastro bowed his head regretfully. "So I see. Your pride has not lessened." He laid his hand upon the shining golden disc, light welling up between his fingers.

"Neither has yours, Priest of Isis!" The Queen did not wait, but called her power to her. She sang her attack in sharp glittering notes; and streaks of silver light filled the air, rushing toward him like daggers. Light blazed from the Circle as he countered her, his power deep and steady as the bones of the earth.

The trees near them shook and twisted wildly as in a strong wind, as their powers raged back and forth. The Queen spared a glance for Pamina and saw that she had caught hold of an ancient oak to steady herself; she was watching them, wide-eyed. Then Pamina pushed herself away from the tree's shelter, drew breath, and sang. She could not match the Queen's speed and force, but her voice was clear and true as she joined her powers to her mother's. Sarastro was forced to give ground, though his concentration never wavered and his rich bass tone lost none of its steadiness.

The Queen realized with triumph that Sarastro was not seeking to kill or disable her, even before Pamina joined the combat, but only to contain her. She doubled her speed, the brilliant notes flying from her lips. Pamina heard the deadly intent behind her attacks, and her voice faltered.

The Queen did not hesitate. She sang with the power of Night, deep and vast, seeking to force Sarastro into sleep; she sought to confuse him with the whirl of the gleaming stars, to blind him with rippling light. She could not. He could not overcome her, but neither could she touch him. It was not Sarastro's strength of will alone that protected him, but the sheer power of the Circle of the Sun which balked her. It should never have been given to Sarastro, she thought with rage; and in her fury, she stumbled. Sarastro's power gently pushed her backward, and she could do nothing.

"I am sorry, Pamina," Sarastro said. He advanced on Pamina and took her arm. "I promise I will not harm you; but we must speak, and not here."

"Let me go! Mother, help—"

He pulled her away with him in spite of her struggles. The Queen sprang after them, but Sarastro's chariot was waiting. His lions bore him and her daughter swiftly away, their powerful muscles moving under their tawny skin.

The Queen staggered and leaned against a tree for a few moments, forced to rest from sheer weariness. Then she straightened, composing her features. She gave the shrill high call that summoned her attendants to her.

"What is it, my Queen?"

"What has happened?"

"Sarastro has taken Pamina," she ground out.

They gripped their silver spears tightly, their eyes reflecting her own anger. "Let us pursue him! We will take her back—"

"No," the Queen said softly. "I cannot fight him directly, as long as he wears the Circle of the Sun. I have another plan in mind."

* * *

 _Notes:_

 _denn meine Tochter fehlet mir_ \- "since my daughter is gone from me," a line from the Queen of the Night's first aria.

The Circle of the Sun (Sonnenkreis) is from the original dialogue, though that bit of dialogue is usually cut from modern scores. (More about that in the second part.)


	2. Der Menschen Leidenschaft verwandeln

II. Der Menschen Leidenschaft verwandeln

When the Queen returned to her palace, she went to a room which had not been opened for a long time. She did not look about her or linger over a dead man's possessions, but went straight to a shelf in the back. A carved wooden box rested there. She hesitated a moment, then opened it. Inside was a set of bells; a pair of small mallets rested inside the lid. She took up one of them and struck a single forceful note. The vibrating metal produced a sweet and clear tone, and she remembered—

Her husband was bent in concentration over his work, and he did not seem to notice when she entered the room. As she approached him, she could see that he held a carved wooden box between his hands, though the raised lid hid its contents.

"What is that?" Her voice held a hint of sharpness. He could stop to acknowledge her, at least.

He made a final adjustment, then closed the lid carefully and raised his head. He silently pushed the box across the table to her. He looked rather satisfied with himself, she thought, and she allowed herself time to examine his work. He had carved every surface of the wooden box with images of a deep and ancient forest; animals of various kinds roamed beneath the trees or disported themselves upon the branches. The Queen let her eye trace the carvings, making out the shape of a lion's paw or a parrot's wing.

She opened it and looked inside curiously. "Bells?"

He gave a quick smile. "Yes, but no ordinary bells."

"Will you play them?"

"They are not for me, nor for you," he replied. "These bells are meant to be played by one whose heart is innocent. Pamina may keep them for now, but in time they will find their master."

Her husband had made many such toys for their daughter; the one before this was a many-jointed snake, that would wiggle as if alive when pulled by a string. But she sensed that this was something more. "What is their purpose?"

He did not answer. Taking up a light mallet, he leaned forward and struck the bells. A sweet, pure sound rang out. The chiming of the bells awoke an odd feeling in her, as if she were back in her girlhood, innocent and hopeful. She resisted it. That was not a time she wished to think of; only when she came into her own and seized the rule of the kingdom of the Night from her mother had she been truly free.

"I do not like them," she said deliberately.

"Perhaps I will make something else that pleases you better."

"What would please me," she said sharply, "is for you to grant me the use of the Circle of the Sun. There is no reason for you to deny me."

His expression hardened, and he shook his head. "It is too dangerous, to have the power of the Sun and the Night in the hands of one person. And I fear what use you would make of it."

She made herself smile, concealing her anger at his answer. "You do not trust me?"

"I trust you in all other things, but not in this."

"Is this what you have learned from the wisdom of the Initiates," she said scornfully, "they who believe that women must be guided by men's authority?"

"There is much wisdom in their teachings," he replied sententiously, "although you do not see it."

An angry flush rose to her cheeks. "I could see it indeed – if there were any worth to it. They shroud their rites in secrecy only to make them seem significant in the eyes of the gullible."

That smile again, the one which infuriated her – hinting at superior knowledge that he would not deign to share. He tucked the mallets inside the case and closed the box with an air of finality.

"Do not give the bells to Pamina!" she demanded.

But he had done so nevertheless. Pamina received her father's latest gift with a pleased smile, and sat down on the floor of her nursery with the mallets clutched in her small hands. The Queen braced herself for cacophony; but instead, a dancing melody rang out from the bells, a rippling sound echoed by Pamina's delighted laughter.

The Queen frowned. "What is this? No one has taught her." Pamina was surely too young to play an instrument with any skill. Her idea of music was still banging on things as hard as she could.

"These bells do not answer to the skill of the player," her husband answered, "but to what is in his heart."

The Queen listened a few moments longer, then abruptly turned and went from the room.

After her husband's death, she had taken the bells from Pamina, ignoring the girl's tears. Her daughter had enough other amusements, and in time she had either forgotten them or at least ceased to ask for them back. In the years since then, the bells in their carved box had sat here gathering dust.

The Queen thought that perhaps she could find a use for them, but they were not what she had come here to seek. She pushed the bells aside. Reaching farther back in the recesses of the shelf, she grasped and lifted out a simple wooden flute.

* * *

 _Notes:_

 _der Menschen Leidenschaft verwandeln_ \- "to change human passions," a line from the First Act quintet describing the powers of the magic flute (though the bells seem to have something of that power also).

I hope my view of Pamina's parents' relationship doesn't seem too negative. My view of Pamina's father is influenced by an older version of the dialogue (since almost nothing is said about him in the current performing version, unless you follow the interpretation that her father is Sarastro). In the scene before "Der Hölle Rache," the Queen tells Pamina how she asked Pamina's father on his deathbed to give her the powerful Circle of the Sun. He refused, saying he would give it to Sarastro: "Sarastro will control it as manfully as I have until now. And now no more; do not try to understand things which are inconceivable to a woman's mind. It is your duty to give yourself and your daughter to the authority of wise men." I didn't want to give him those exact views, but after reading that scene, it was hard for me to imagine them with a completely happy marriage. The scene ends with the Queen demanding that Pamina kill Sarastro, as in the current version, but also that she take the Circle of the Sun from him and bring it to her mother.


End file.
